The killing of 220 Palestinian journalists in the shadow of global silence

The Israeli war on the Gaza Strip has claimed the lives of 220 journalists since October 7, 2023, including Muhammad Hijazi, a Palestinian writer, poet, and journalist who was recently killed in an Israeli airstrike on the Jabalia refugee camp in northern Gaza.

In a statement released on Sunday, the Gaza Health Ministry said that Muhammad Hijazi was one of almost 90 Palestinians killed in Israeli attacks over the course of 24 hours in the besieged Gaza Strip.

Hundreds have been killed in the Jabalia camp and thousands have been forced to flee the area since the Israeli regime imposed a military blockade on northern Gaza on October 5 and increased bombardment. Even the delivery of basic food supplies to the region has been prohibited by the Zionist regime.

Meanwhile, since the start of the conflict, the army of the Zionist regime has targeted journalists and media professionals. However, the occupying government always tries to defend these crimes.

For example, the press release of the occupying regime’s army on December 2 tried to justify a war crime. The regime shamelessly admitted that the occupying army targeted five Palestinian journalists in a marked press vehicle outside Al-Awda Hospital (in the Nuseirat refugee camp) in the center of the Gaza Strip.

In this statement, the Zionist regime’s army claimed that the five Palestinians were actually resistance fighters who introduced themselves as journalists; the claims continued that the five were broadcasting war propaganda because they worked for the Al-Quds Al-Youm network affiliated with the Palestinian Islamic Jihad movement.
This is despite the fact that the occupying army failed to provide any evidence that these individuals were carrying weapons or involved in any armed action.

 Numerous Western media outlets cited the purported Israeli army statement as though it were factual and not propaganda meant to cover up a war crime. They did not inform their viewers that assaulting journalists is a crime of war.

International humanitarian law protects all journalists, whether or not the conflict's parties agree with their reporting.

According to Article 79 of the Additional Protocol to the Geneva Conventions, all journalists who perform risky professional tasks in armed conflict zones are deemed civilians and need to be protected.

For the past 15 months, the Israeli army has been murdering Palestinian journalists in flagrant violation of this international law provision.

Reporters Without Borders, a Paris-based organization, has referred to Palestine as the most dangerous place for journalists and called the Israeli regime's killing of journalists an unprecedented bloodbath.

The Israeli government has also been named by the group as one of the primary detainers of journalists.

The Israeli government forbids foreign journalists from entering Gaza in addition to refusing to acknowledge Palestinian media professionals as protected individuals.

Not much has been done by the global media to challenge this prohibition. For 15 months, the international media has not regularly followed up on these demands, with the exception of a petition that was signed by 60 media outlets in the summer.